Yuletide
From Fan History Wiki
Yuletide is a Secret Santa project for rare fandoms. It has existed since 2003 and asks that participants write at least 1000 words of giftfic in an obscure fandom, given a single person's requested fandoms, characters, and any notes they might offer.
Yuletide has become so popular within LiveJournal media fandom that many people have come to consider it a fandom within itself. With the huge volume of stories posted annually, compiling and posting rec lists (preferably before the author reveal) has become a huge part of Yuletide annually, with some competition ensuing over whose stories receive the most public recs and feedback.
In 2009, Yuletide became associated directed with the Organization for Transformative Works and Archive of Our Own, as the administrators announced that the archive would be integrated into AO3.
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[edit] Participation
In 2006, 1052 stories were written in 549 different fandoms by 902 participants. About 60% of participants uploaded their stories on the last day. [1]
In 2007, 1279 people originally signed up to participate. That year, 2042 stories were written in 734 different fandoms by 1291 participants (including pinch hitters).
In 2008, 1628 people originally signed up to participate. 2426 stories were written.
[edit] History
[edit] 2007
- On January 1, 2007, the administrators announced that in the future, "if you sign up for Yuletide and upload a story, you are agreeing to let us keep that story in the archive, for good." [2] Although the administrators will adjust or delete all identifying information on a story if requested, they will not be removed from the archive, even upon request. This decision helped to prompt a fannish discussion about ownership. (On January 6th, for instance, metafandom linked to a post by LiveJournal user celandineb on Fanfic and ownership rights.)
[edit] 2008
[edit] 2009
- One previously large fandom which was declared eligible this year for Yuletide was Babylon 5, creating a great deal of excitement from possible participants.[4]
- On October 29, 2009, the administrators announced they would be giving "amnesty" this year for all who had defaulted on or banned from the challenge in the past. This was cited as being due to upcoming "changes in the wind" for Yuletide.[5]
- On November 4, 2009, sign-ups for the 2009 exchange went live.[6] In an announcement earlier in the day, it was finally revealed, as had been hinted at previously, that Yuletide would be integrating into Archive of Our Own for the posting and revealing of stories this year. It was also suggested by this announcement that the old Yuletide archive would be merged into AO3.[7] When questioned on how the Yuletide admins would handle deletion requests from previous authors who did not wish their work to be hosted on AO3, the response given was:
- ....participation in Yuletide comes with an agreement that authors will leave their stories in the Yuletide archive. If we'd had to move to a new ISP, I'd have assumed that this agreement held good.
- This is essentially what is happening with the shift to AO3, a move that is necessary for Yuletide to continue at all, and definitely the best option for the mods and the ongoing existence of the Yuletide archive. The Challenge will still be maintained and run by astolat and myself; how distinct the Yuletide archive will be in appearance and search options is not yet completely defined.
- With the shift, and going by overall AO3 policy, people will be able to delete their own stories, but we will ask that instead they "orphan" them, which will be an easy option. If they instead choose to delete the stories, they will no longer be welcome to sign up for Yuletide, since they will be removing what was essentially someone else's gift, as you say.[8]
[edit] Kerfluffles
In 2007, there was controversy over the fact that Yuletide sign-ups would begin on the date of a Jewish holiday. MamaDeb first raised these concerns in her journal[9] where she also voiced some dissatisfaction with the name of the challenge itself, and its Christian connotations. There was much wank that followed in the comments, along with fair-minded discussion that pointed out that the sign-up period did last for 2 weeks. A number of other journal postings followed discussing this, along with a fair amount of anger, some calling of people by slurs, and threats/actual defriending based on responses.
A summary of related journal links:
- Yuletide persecutes Jews: Fandom Wank report on October 9, 2007
- Oyvey: kita0610 on October 9, 2007
- don we now our flameproof armor: chopchica on October 10, 2007
- Effery, Yuletide, and EFFERY: skywardprodigal on October 10, 2007
- The non-Christian's Christmas: mayatawi on October 9, 2007
- Andrea Gets Her Meta On: ladycat777 on October 10, 2007
- Here are my thoughts on /y/a/o/i/ "yuletide," fandom, and anti-Semitism: Melymbrosia on October 11, 2007
- links a billion: chopchica on October 11, 2007
- you can call me...zog: chopchica on October 11, 2007
- Well that made my day: kita0610 on October 11, 2007
- Warning: I am so furious that I can barely see: vaznetti on October 12, 2007
- Why be coy?: brown-betty on October 12, 2007
- Some observations on the art of invisibility.: holli on October 12, 2007
- For people in the majority when dealing with those in the minority:: lenadances on October 12, 2007
- the power of visibility: elishavah on October 14, 2007
- links redux and some handy bullet points: chopchica on October 17, 2007
- This is not a pie-eating competition: Melymbrosia on October 18, 2007
- Solidarity: rubynye on October 21, 2007
There was a small kerfuffle in November 2009 about the move to An Archive of Our Own and no easy ability for authors to remove stories. Some people on lol_mama were unhappy about this but because they wanted rare fandom stories, they felt trapped into leaving their stories there.
A list of discussion about this:
- GIP: randomsome1 on November 13, 2009
